The W-Curve: Why Coming Home Can Be Hard

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Most people who study intercultural adjustment are familiar with the so-called U-curve. The idea that when you move into a new country, your experience follows a a pretty predictable arc. You have initial excitement, then some frustration, and then gradual adaptation, and eventually something that begins to feel like integration.

[00:00:27]What the Gullahorns observed though is that the curve it doesn't end there.

[00:00:32]It actually extends because when you return home, you go through that same process again.

[00:00:42]A second U.

[00:00:44]And together, those two arcs form the shape of a double